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Environmental education

About: Environmental education is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 14551 publications have been published within this topic receiving 211056 citations. The topic is also known as: environmental learning.


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01 Jan 2007
TL;DR: The successive steps of both instruments (grids and questionnaire) collective construction process, their validation and application, and general results to exemplify the diversity found in different countries textbooks and in teachers and future teachers’ conceptions are described.
Abstract: The European Biohead-Citizen research project has started in October 2004 and is now in its last year of implementation. It aims to understand how Biology, Health and Environmental Education can promote a better citizenship, by analysing potential differences in 19 countries (13 European countries and 6 non European countries) and associating them to controlled parameters. Six topics were defined by the consortium for the research (“Human Brain”, “Human Genetics”, “Human Origin”, “Human Reproduction and Sex Education”, “Health Education” and “Ecology and Environmental Education”). Specific grids were constructed and validated for application to primary to secondary school textbooks (5/6 to 17/18 years old students) of all 19 countries. A questionnaire was constructed and after validation in a pilot test, the final questionnaire was applied to a total of 6379 teachers of primary school and of secondary school (biology and of national language), and also to corresponding pre-service teachers. We describe the successive steps of both instruments (grids and questionnaire) collective construction process, their validation and application and also present general results to exemplify the diversity found in different countries textbooks and in teachers and future teachers’ conceptions. Teachers’ and future teachers’ conceptions are contrasted in relation to creationism, sexism views and awareness of some environmental issues. Some of these differences are correlated with the controlled parameters as religion, degree of religious practices, political positions, academic level and training type. Challenges of this interaction between the taught scientific knowledge, values and socio-cultural contexts will be discussed.

56 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
06 Mar 2018-PLOS ONE
TL;DR: Assessment of a six-week bird-feeding and monitoring project conducted within school grounds (“Bird Buddies”) finds evidence for enhanced awareness of local biodiversity, alongside significant gains in both bird identification knowledge and attitudes, which were greatest for children with little prior exposure to nature.
Abstract: Children nowadays, particularly in urban areas, are more disconnected from nature than ever before, leading to a large-scale "extinction of experience" with the natural world. Yet there are many potential benefits from children interacting with nature first-hand, including via outdoor learning opportunities. Urban environmental education programmes typically aim to increase awareness and knowledge of local biodiversity and to promote positive attitudes and behaviour towards the environment. However, limited research has been conducted evaluating to what extent these interventions achieve their goals. Here, we explore and assess the influence of a six-week bird-feeding and monitoring project conducted within school grounds ("Bird Buddies") on individual awareness, knowledge and attitudes towards birds by primary school children. This initiative was conducted across eight (sub-)urban primary schools within Brighton and Hove (UK), with 220 participating children (aged 7 to 10). Via pre- and post-project questionnaires, we found evidence for enhanced awareness of local biodiversity, alongside significant gains in both bird identification knowledge and attitudes, which were greatest for children with little prior exposure to nature. Many children expressed a keenness to continue improving the environmental value of their school grounds and to apply elements of the project at home. Student project evaluation scores were consistently positive. Mirroring this, participating teachers endorsed the project as a positive learning experience for their students. One year after the project, several schools were continuing to feed and watch birds. Collectively, the findings from this study highlight the multiple benefits that can be derived from engagement with a relatively short outdoor environmental activity. We therefore believe that such interventions, if repeated locally/longer term, could enhance children's experience with nature in urban settings with combined positive environmental impact.

56 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the problems of converting environmentalism into modern western living are described, as are various remedies, ranging from new approaches to analysis to various forms of activity and association with the surrounding community.
Abstract: Environmentalism is as much an attitude of mind and a certain code of behaviour as an ideology. Therefore the educational challenge is to make environmentalism real, not merely a classroom abstraction. The problems of converting environmentalism into modern western living are described, as are various remedies, ranging from new approaches to analysis to various forms of activity and association with the surrounding community.

55 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is recommended that environmental programs re-organize around three principles: adopt as an overriding goal the concept of human dignity—defined as freedom and social justice in healthy, sustainable environments, which captures the human and environmental aspirations of the EPM.
Abstract: Environmental studies and environmental sciences programs in American and Canadian colleges and universities seek to ameliorate environmental problems through empirical enquiry and analytic judgment. In a companion article (Part 1) we describe the environmental program movement (EPM) and discuss factors that have hindered its performance. Here, we complete our analysis by proposing strategies for improvement. We recommend that environmental programs re-organize around three principles. First, adopt as an overriding goal the concept of human dignity—defined as freedom and social justice in healthy, sustainable environments. This clear higher-order goal captures the human and environmental aspirations of the EPM and would provide a more coherent direction for the efforts of diverse participants. Second, employ an explicit, genuinely interdisciplinary analytical framework that facilitates the use of multiple methods to investigate and address environmental and social problems in context. Third, develop educational programs and applied experiences that provide students with the technical knowledge, powers of observation, critical thinking skills and management acumen required for them to become effective professionals and leaders. Organizing around these three principles would build unity in the EPM while at the same time capitalizing on the strengths of the many disciplines and diverse local conditions involved.

55 citations

Journal Article
Anthony Weston1
TL;DR: The authors suggests that even in a traditional classroom it is still possible to unsettle our deeply-felt sense of disconnection from the world, and to begin to reconnect, and make use of school's hyperhumanized and academic setting to this very end.
Abstract: Almost by necessity, school cuts us off from the experience of a larger world: from natural rhythms, natural beings, more-than-human flows of knowledge and inspiration. In fact, we could hardly design a worse setting for environmental education! The problem is that, at least for now, we’re stuck with it. Part of our challenge is to find ways to work toward and embody a radically different practice and philosophy of (environmental) education within schools as we know them. This paper suggests that even in a traditional classroom it is still possible to unsettle our deeply-felt sense of disconnection from the world, and to begin to reconnect. It may even be possible to make use of school’s hyperhumanized and academic setting to this very end. The required pedagogy, however, is rather wild. It is much more personally demanding and unnerving than the usual sorts of pedagogical innovations. The latter part of this paper suggests a series of “everyday and practical” classroom strategies in this new key.

55 citations


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Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
2023377
2022796
2021505
2020675
2019631
2018607